“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
Haile Selassie

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Sandusky Attorney Impregnated 16 Year Old Client

This is an interesting story that quite a few people have missed. In Indiana, it would not have been a crime either. However, in this state it is a disciplinary violation for an attorney to have sex with a client if there was no a pre-existing intimate relationship:

Attorney Joe Amendola

Joe Amendola, Jerry Sandusky’s attorney, impregnated a 16-year-old client and married her in 2003. Amendola was around 49 when he met the girl. Joe Amendola, the State College, Pa., attorney representing accused child molester Jerry Sandusky, has an interesting back story himself: He got a teen-age client pregnant during the mid-1990s.

Amendola, 63, married the girl several years after the birth of their child, The Daily reported Monday night, citing documents filed at the Centre County, Pa., courthouse.

Amendola represented a 16-year-old girl then known as Mary Iavasile when she filed an emancipation petition in September 1996. The emancipation petition said the girl had graduated from high school in two years with a 3.69 GPA and held a fulltime job at Amendola's law office.
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Jerry Sandusky

﻿The girl gave birth to Amendola's child when she was 17 years old, her mother, Janet Iavasile, said. Amendola would have been about 49 years old at the time. The age of consent in Pennsylvania is 16.

Janet Iavasile said she didn't know the extent of the relationship between her daughter and the attorney. She thought he was more of a mentor than a paramour.

"She was interested in law," the mother said.

Amendola married the girl in February 2003 and the couple had a second child before they separated. Amendola's estranged wife, now a 32, has retained his last name.

"Joe is a very good father and has loved his two children very much, and that's the most important thing for me right now," Janet Iavasile said.

...

"I didn't go around seeking out every young person for sexual needs that I've helped," Sandusky said. "There are many that I didn't have - I hardly had any contact with who I helped in many, many ways."

Amendola is apparently unconvinced. When Costas asked the lawyer if he would leave his children alone with Sandusky, Amendola said "yes, without hesitation."

"OMG," Mary Amendola wrote on her Facebook page, "did Joe just say that he would allow my kids to be alone with Jerry Sandusky?"

About Me

I have been an attorney since the Fall of 1987. I have worked in every branch of government, including a stint as a Deputy Attorney General, a clerk for a judge on the Indiana Court of Appeals, and I have worked three sessions at the Indiana State Senate.
During my time as a lawyer, I have worked not only in various government positions, but also in private practice as a trial attorney handing an assortment of mostly civil cases.
I have also been politically active and run this blog in an effort to add my voice to those calling for reform.